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Stuart

A composite image of Maria Modena and a baby.

Over 70 observers watched this Stuart queen give birth. Why did they still doubt the baby was real?

A composite image of post-medieval women being persecuted.

In post-medieval Scotland, two specific crimes reveal the challenges faced by ordinary women

The many faces of James VI & I.

Uprising: the Civil Wars untangled.

This 15th-century 'Zodiac Man' illustrates how each sign of the zodiac was thought to govern a different part of the human body. Such images helped shape early modern astrology, which blended medieval medical theory with renewed interest in celestial influence. Astrological medicine guided decisions from diagnosis to bloodletting, reflecting a world in which the heavens were seen as active forces in human health and destiny.

How do you cope with living in a century of chaos? By learning how to predict the future

Who stole the Tudor crown?.

This late 16th-century portrait by John de Critz depicts Sir Francis Walsingham (c.1532–1590), Queen Elizabeth I’s spymaster. A shrewd diplomat and master of espionage, Walsingham built the intelligence network that helped safeguard the Tudor state from plots and foreign threats.

Elizabeth I’s shadowy spy network was tasked with uncovering secret conspiracies. Here’s what it found

Remember, remember: the legacy of the Gunpowder Plot.

Crystal balls & contacting angels: predicting the future in early modern England.

This 1605 print depicts Guy Fawkes and his fellow conspirators in the Gunpowder Plot, a failed Catholic scheme to blow up the Houses of Parliament during the state opening by King James I.

420 years ago, a deadly conspiracy to kill Britain’s king nearly succeeded. What if it had worked?

What if the Gunpowder Plot had succeeded?.

How the Gunpowder Plot unravelled.

Who laid the fuse for the Gunpowder Plot?.

Beyond the podcastThe Gunpowder plot

Bandits & blasphemers: crime in 17th century Scotland.

An edited image of a man with long curly hair and a lacy ruff. The right hand side of his face is colour inverted so it appears black with a red eye

The sinister secrets of Samuel Pepys.

A man in a grey T shirt and blue jeans sits with his arms crossed, facing the camera. He has dark curly hair and wears glasses

Jonathan Healey: “A connection was made between the rarefied world of the royal court and the politics of the street”.

Maria of Modena: life of the week.

A woman dressed in a ruffled dress and spotted robe holds a young child in a white, lacy dress and cap

Maria of Modena: The queen who started a revolution.

An eye looking through a dark keyhole.

Are your neighbours spying on you? In the 17th century they had the power to destroy your life

Scotland's season of the witch.

How the English took Manhattan.

A coloured engraving of pirate captain Bartholomew Roberts, who enforced strict rules on his ship.

Liquor, loot and death on the high seas: 5 things you (probably) didn't know about the history of pirates.

by Anthony van Dyck

"Tyrant, traitor, murderer and public enemy": was Charles I really that bad?.

Engraved portrait of British poet and politician John Milton

John Milton: the Paradise Lost author who challenged the status quo

Episode 2Holyrood Palace.

How to build a radical: what the Gunpowder Plot can teach us about extremism today.

Nell Gwyn: life of the week.

An engraving of John Milton in 1670. By that time he’d been blind for nearly two decades – but continued to express strong views on religion and the monarchy in his writing (Photo by Heritage Art/Heritage Images via Getty Images)

Long road to paradise: the life of John Milton and how he created his masterpiece, Paradise Lost.

Britain's wild republican decade.